Should the US have killed Osama Bin Laden?

I'm undecided on this one, though I'm swaying towards the view that he shouldn't have been killed, instead just prevented from killing others. Was it right to kill him? What are the positives and negatives of his death?

Morally what was the right thing to do? was it a lesser of two evils?

How similar were/are the motivations of Al Qaeda and the US, they are both convinced that they religion is right are they not?

The reason there was such a moral dilemma about killing bin Laden was the United States is supposed to have the reputation of being the center for justice for the world. As a superpower we are expected to be above murdering someone, and instead allow for the rule of law to take over. The terrorist are expected to kill our soldiers because they are barbaric, but we are not a barbaric nation. It's kind of like when your younger sibling does something to you and you do it back, and get in trouble by parents because they said that as the older child you are supposed to set the example. Its kind of like the same situation with the United States. Now personally, I thought that the bastard bin Laden got what he deserved, but I think that we did him a favor by killing. Instead, we should have made him wish he was dead.

I believe we should have made him disappear (by killing him), but not tell anyone. People would speculate, and the US could casually deny, but no matter how he died (and in the end, even by trial he would have anyway), he would be considered a martyr.

The ones that would notice most would be Al-Qaeda and it would be satisfying to me to have them make a fuss about Bin Laden being missing and us ignore them and make fun of them for 'losing' him. I'd love the president to have a news conference to say he believes Bin Laden is no longer a threat to anyone anymore, that his sphere of influence had been shrunk to not being able to plan the destruction of the moles in his yard; whereever he is now....with a smug smile on his face.

We could never afford one, and there isn't a jail in the world that would take him. Heck, countries did t even want his dead body to bury, you think anyone would want him alive?

Imagine the security issues. He'd never be allow in general population, so he'd exist in solitary. He doesn't recognize our laws, so how could he help in his own defense? You'd never find a unbiased jury; and good luck finding a lawyer capable of defending him, let alone willing to take the case.

And then come the throngs of followers, all the nut jobs who'd flock to the jail, the extra guards and security and threats and...it would be a mess.

Besides, a trial is to determine guilt. He confessed, and never stopped confessing. Consider that he plead guilt and was sentence to death, and we just skipped the appeals process...

Osama was CIA, and once CIA, always CIA. Osama Bin Laden is no more responsible for 9/11 than the CIA is. The CIA and its members have no laws and no morals. If he were American CIA he would have been in a safe house in the middle of no where, someplace like Pakistan. Is he still CIA, is he really dead?

I think it is commendable that you are considering this question, but ,imo, it was a casualty of war so yes, it probably is best that he was killed like that. Hell, as opposed to either of the other two conflicts we are involved in in the Moslem world, we didn't start this conflict. They did, when they hijacked those planes on 9-11.

I like a lot of what I read of the rest of yall. Starscreams idea makes me laugh.

When he became an international terrorist mastermind, he knew how this would probably end. If he had tried to establish himself as a dictator in one country, he might have had better luck. It's just too bad he didn't dispose of himself like Hitler did. The folks killed on Sept. 11 didn't get any trial or even a chance to escape. I don't think religion had a lot to do with taking Bin Laden down. i think he had more (probably many more) terrorist attacks planned against the US and other countries. I think this is the main reason he was killed. He was not going to stop no matter what.

I think we are still in a state of war with bin laden's group, although they are not a country so the war isn't declared. being in a state of war i think it's ok to kill him, same as it's ok to kill the other combattants. I was against the war in iraq, there was no evidence iraq was a threat and they did not attack us. bin ladens group killed thousands with their attacks. so far doesn't look like he's martyred - draw a cartoon of mohammed and people riot, but there have been no riots about bin laden. time will tell.

Since Bin Laden was unarmed, his killing was an execution, rather than a battle casualty. As such, it was murder. Since we are a nation driven by law rather than by men, he should have been brought to trial - he was innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Or at least, that's our ideal. Unfortunately, our available methods are not up to our ideals, so sometimes we have to concede that those ideals aren't always workable. If we had taken Bin Laden into custody, it's likely that there would be many innocent hostages right now whose lives would be forfeit. A dead Bin Laden leaves no reason for hostages.

The optimum technique would have been to claim we killed him while actually interrogating him at some secret location.
To pull that off we'd have to somehow arrange for someone close to him to be an eyewitness to his killing - maybe someone like a wife who doesn't actually see the lethal shots because - oh I don't know - maybe she's just been shot herself in the arm or leg. Some of his blood on the floor would serve as DNA evidence. However, this is the kind of scheme that Hollywood might dream up. I mean - with secret Stealth helicopters, a highly skilled super-ninja-like raiding team, and a huge budget. Things like this don't actually happen, do they?